Could One Conversation Change What You Eat?
Many people shop labels. Whether its high fashion or expensive cars, a label costs more; it means something to the consumer. Food is no different. People who care about the quality of the food they put in their body read labels. If a label reads “high fructose corn syrup” or “trans fat” an informed consumer will bypass this product. Whether a food has an organic label or not is also important information for today’s foodies. If a product has the seal “USDA Organic” the consumer knows that the food was grown or prepared using organic practices and ingredients; however, the producer has paid a fee to the government to obtain that certification.
Many small farmers cannot afford the high cost of the government’s organic label. According to the Organic Trade Association, referenced in this article on Change.org, 92 percent of organic food sold in this country is sold by mass markets, like Wal-Mart, Costco, or grocery store chains. By comparison, only 8 percent comes from farmers markets, co-ops, or CSA’s (Community Supported Agriculture).
Quite often the small farmers have organic growing practices; they just don’t pay for the expensive label. How do you get this important information? It’s easy; simply start a conversation with the person you are buying your food from. When you visit the farmers market and you see they do not have an organic label, ask why? Ask them about their growing practices. Do they use pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals? You won’t know until you ask.
Do you only shop for products with the “USDA Organic” label? Do local farmers in your area provide an opportunity to talk about their growing practices? What are your conversations like?
Oak Lawn IL Chiropractor Talks About Tension Headaches and Chiropractic Treatment
Are you suffering from painful tension headaches? Dr. Gerald Helwig, the best Oak Lawn Chiropractor, knows that life can be a pain from time to time. Sometimes that pain is caused by an accident or injury. Sometimes it can be the result of the cumulative effects of bad posture and poor gait. Pain can also occur from the degenerative effects of aging. But, sometimes pain, especially headache pain, can be caused by everyday stress.
Are you sidelined by your tension headaches? Do they cause you to be absent from work or ineffective while you’re there? Do they interfere with your family and social life? Most people have experienced more than one tension headache in their life. If you are someone who’s had a tension headache, then you know that the pain usually feels like an intense, but dull ache in your head. Such pain is commonly accompanied by a sensation of tightness or pressure along the forehead or on the sides and back of the head. Sometimes, you might feel a tenderness of your scalp, neck and shoulder muscles, and periodically you may experience a loss of appetite or even nausea.
Most tension headaches are defined as mild to moderately intense, but the severity of the pain varies from one person to another, and can vary from one headache to another in the same person. Would you describe your tension headaches as occurring frequently? Did you know that if your headaches take place fifteen or more days a month for a minimum of three months, they’re viewed by healthcare professionals as chronic?
The good news is that if tension headaches are interfering with your life, once in a while or chronically, chiropractic treatment can help. For over twenty years Dr. Helwig has been helping the Oak Lawn Community to get out of pain, whether an individual is suffering from back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, knee pain, foot pain, and headaches. That right! Chiropractors don’t just treat back pain. They address the entire musculoskeletal system!
So, if you are suffering from tension headaches that have kept you from living your life fully, call Dr. Helwig, your Chiropractor in Oak Lawn, Illinois today. Get your life back!
Obesity: A National Epidemic?
As a chiropractor and healthcare provider, I would be remiss if I didn’t address the vital issue of excess weight and how it negatively affects every part of the human body. I explain the health challenges to my overweight patients and hammer away on the subject in my blogs because in addition to the cardio-vascular diseases caused by obesity, much of the back pain, hip pain, and knee pain that people experience is influenced by the undue stress excess weight puts on the joints of the body. And, though it may not surprise you, an expert panel in a report out just today said that people in this country must slash their calories and increase physical activity because the obesity epidemic is “the single greatest threat to public health in this century.”
We all know that dieting isn’t easy, but the advisory committee for the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans gave this clear-cut advice: “People in this country need to cut the calories they consume from added sugars and solid fats (butter, marbled meats) and start eating a more nutrient-rich, plant-based diet.”
The report called for many changes in the food environment. To read more, go to: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2010-06-15-
Wichita Chiropractor Reveals How Chiropractic Treatment Can End Your Sciatic Pain
I am aware from over twenty years experience as a Chiropractor in Wichita assisting people suffering from the pain of sciatica that the condition can be extremely debilitating. Sciatica sufferers are unfortunately all too familiar with the type of deep pain that frequently radiates through the lower part of their body, persists during the day and interferes with almost all of their daily activities.
Are you wondering if your low back pain could be caused by sciatica? You are probably experiencing sciatica if your pain radiates from your low back, through one or both sides of your buttocks, down the large sciatic nerve in the back of one or both legs, and possibly radiates into one or both knees. Also, not solely movement, but even sitting can be painful. Commonly lying down will lessen, or sometimes even temporarily eliminate the pain. But, it’s important for you to know that sciatica will not go away without appropriate treatment.
Radiculopathy
A radiculopathy is a medical term that describes a condition where a disc has protruded from its normal position in the spine and is putting pressure on the radicular nerve (nerve root) that forms part of the sciatic nerve in the lower back. Such pressure can cause excruciating pain.
Prolonged sitting, particularly in an awkward position, can produce imbalances in the muscles encircling the spine and increased pressure on the intervertebral discs. Generally, a specific event or injury doesn’t cause sciatica, instead sciatica is likely to evolve over time due to ordinary wear and tear on the vertebrae of the lower spine. Over the course of time the lower spine can lose its normal functioning capabilities during ordinary stresses.
Ultimately, the intervertebral disc incurs small fissures or cracks that then let the soft nucleus to protrude the disc outward. If the disc pushes on sensitive tissues, it produces the pain that is commonly referred to as a ruptured, or slipped, disc. Sciatica is the result of the disc pressing on the spinal nerve. Fortunately, most disc conditions, including sciatica, can be totally alleviated with chiropractic treatment and therapy that frequently includes postural exercises.
Periformis Syndrome
Periformis syndrome is another condition that results in sciatic pain. Periformis syndrome happens when the periformis muscle, which is superficial to the sciatic nerve, goes into spasm and irritates the nerve. Along with chiropractic manipulation, this type of sciatica can be significantly relieved by sciatica stretches that your chiropractor will advise you on.
It is crucial for you to seek chiropractic attention if you are experiencing sciatic pain. If you are in the Wichita area, as your Wichita Chiropractor, I look forward to helping you to get out of pain and get your life back!
The Hottest Buzz: Social Media Marketing
chiropractic Marketing
Social Media is the “hottest” buzz word on the Internet today. For those of you who would like to explore Social Media marketing as an adjunct to your overall chiropractic internet marketing strategy, but aren’t really sure what all the buzz is about, let’s take a minute to talk about the “Who, What, When, Where, and How” of social media and you, that’s “Who.”
Social media marketing may be very much like, and entirely unlike, any chiropractic marketing strategy you’ve considered. In the “very much like” category, you wouldn’t consider any type of marketing plan without making an effort to understand what it is and what you want to get from it. It’s important to ask yourself, “What are my goals?” Once you’re clear about what you want, you’ll be more capable of using social media to your greatest advantage.
When you are ready to begin your social media venture, but before you start, you will need to make certain that you “own your name” on all the social media outlets, which is to say, make sure that your name or the name of your clinic is procurable so that you can use precisely same name on every one of the social channels you decide to use. When you’re ready, there’s a service, which is entirely free, that will help you with your search. That who is knowem.com. Knowem.com will research where your name is and/or if it’s attainable or not on a substantial number of social media sites.
The next step, once you have all your social media accounts “locked up”, is to choose where you would like to be active. Because you have a clinic to run and patients to see, starting with only a few social media sites is best and may actually be all you’ll need. That way you won’t get unduly busy in too many channels. How do decide which sites are best for you? Choose the social media site where the most action is, which are facebook, twitter, linkedin, and Youtube
What successful social media activity will do for you is build a genuine presence in your community. What is definitely a no-no is for you to try to “sell” on your social media sites, which is to say don’t sell your chiropractic services, don’t sell products, don’t sell anything! The benefit of social media is for you to have an addition channel through which to network with the community. Of course, let them know what you do, but do it by becoming a participant. There is actually no difference between social networking offline and social media networking. People on social media sites don’t want to be sold to, plain and simply. What might be a beneficial idea to think of social media sites like a neighborhood backyard barbecue. People are standing around having a conversation about who they are and what they do, and then someone asks you what you do. Or, perhaps you start the conversation by (just) saying, “Hi, I’m Dr. ____. The same kind of interaction applies with social media. Social media sites should be handled the same way you’d “work” offline networking opportunities to promote yourself, i.e., answer the questions and concerns that let people know who you are and gets them interested in the who that’s you!
Chiropractic Internet Marketing Strategy: Do it Yourself or Outsource?
Here’s an interesting question for you to consider: Do you want to keep your chiropractic internet marketing in-house or do you want to hire a professional? There are pros and cons to both, and the answer lies in your particular situation. Let’s check out the advantages and disadvantages of both.
Advantages of in-house chiropractic internet marketing
- There is a lower monthly cost involved in using someone already employed by you.
- The staff knows your practice intimately. Your staff has a good understanding of your clinic’s particular services and, therefore, is able to describe your specialties easier than those who don’t know the specifics of your particular practice.
- You can communicate anytime. Being in-house it is easier to set up times to have meetings or just to chat about situations on the fly.
Disadvantages of in-house chiropractic website marketing
- The staff may not be fully aware of what SEO (search engine optimization) is, let alone how to accomplish it. In that case, a lot of education and training will be needed to make sure SEO gets done right.
- The staff may be overworked. Sometimes the time it takes to do SEO can be underestimated. It is an ongoing process that can actually be a full-time job. If a marketing manager has been told to do SEO as well as his or her full time job, obviously that person will be overworked and feel overwhelmed.
- Attention needs to be paid to detail. This goes together with Point #2. If the staff is overworked, they have no time to check out search engine news and keep up-to-date on how the search engines have changed the game each week and what needs to be done to implement those changes to keep your clinic internet presence up in the rankings.
Advantages of using an outside professional
- Chiropractic marketing companies are specialists in the field. They have experience in working on numerous clinics and their websites and optimizing them for SEO. They know, first hand, what works effectively and what doesn’t.
- There is a dedicated team at the company who will be working on your site and can give it the attention it requires.
- The company has a specific plan and won’t be just jumping around, going from short term tactic to short term tactic with no organized strategy and no clear way to reach your desired goals. In other words, they have an “integrated” internet marketing strategy.
Disadvantages of a chiropractic internet marketing company
- Let’s face it, it can get expensive, but costs vary widely from company to company. Some companies out there are charging $600-$700 a month for their services. It is definitely worth your while to shop around and research before you buy.
- There is usually a commitment. Most chiropractic internet marketing companies will want you to sign up for at least six months to a year.
- Account management can be a problem. With high turnover rates at many companies, especially the big ones, there may be a chance that you’ll get handed from account manager to account manager just when you were building a relationship of trust. You may have to start over again, maybe even have to redesign and reiterate your strategy with the new manager.
Now that you’ve taken a moment to look at the pros and cons of both keeping your internet marketing in-house or hiring a professional, the solution to SEO and your internet marketing strategy will depend on the size of your practice, the time and staffing you can devote to it, and your overall long-term goals.
Now, of course, we are a chiropractic internet marketing company that specializes in helping chiropractors with their internet presence. So, I will admit that I am a bit biased on the side of your hiring an expert to do it right. If you are thinking of hiring a company to develop and implement your internet marketing strategy, it is tremendously important for you to hire one that specializes in chiropractic clinics. Why? Because we understand the chiropractic profession intimately. Therefore, in the long run it will save you both time and money not having to explain what chiropractic is about to some general SEO company. There are several of us out there.
If you are going to go with an outside company, be sure to read the fine print. Look at the bottom of their page for a disclaimer. If they have one, read about their “typical” results. You don’t want to be fooled by outrageous claims even though such hype can be enticing. Remember, your internet marketing strategy is just one stream of new patient leads. Even though chiropractic internet marketing is fast becoming a great source for new patient leads, and even though internet marketing gets more important with every passing day, and even though it is a crucial area in which to generate new patient leads, it is still not the only source of marketing you will need to succeed in your practice.
Whether you choose to keep your internet marketing in-house or to hire a professional, you want to be sure that the time and money you spend on SEO gets you where you want to go. A member of your staff that does your internet marketing for “free,” while squeezing those efforts in-between other tasks, may “cost” you in the long run. A professional whose sole focus is internet marketing, won’t lose sight of your goals. Internet marketing is essential to your practice, so choose your chiropractic internet path wisely.
Did You Know That Just a Few Extra Pounds Can Create An Imbalance in Your Immune System?
What’s a little extra weight, especially when your clothes still fit? Most of us know that “too much” extra poundage can lead to heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases, not to mention the damage that it does to the musculoskeletal system. As a chiropractor I witness first hand on a regular basis the toll that extra weight takes on the low back, hips, and knees. But, did you know that even as “little” as 10 extra pounds of body fat, particularly abdominal fat, in addition to stressing body joints and burdening the efforts of the heart, can actually trigger the production of “pro-inflammatory” immune cells that circulate in the blood and promote inflammation in the body. When our immune system isn’t working “for” us, we experience adverse reactions and painful conditions.
The good news, as far as the immune system goes, is that recently Australian researchers found that shedding just 10 pounds helped to bring back balance to the immune system of obese individuals. Getting the immune system back into balance is certainly a wonderful step in the right direction toward better health and longevity.
But, as you begin that important diet and exercise program, it’s a good idea to see a chiropractor. Chiropractors are highly knowledgeable when it comes to both diet and exercise. Your chiropractor may suggest that along with a nutritious diet, your individual body may require additional supplementation. And, in addition, your chiropractor will make sure that your body is in good alignment so that your new exercise routines promote pain-free mobility that leads to healthy weight loss.
The results of the Australian study were published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology Metabolism.Radical Surgery or Conservative Chiropractic Treatment?
I just read a very moving story in the news today about a man who’d had his prostate removed and, afterwards, spent every waking moment wishing that he had it back again. The gist of the story was, of course, that he’d waited “too long” to have his prostate checked and his condition had developed into a more serious problem making surgery unavoidable. But, as I read the story I began to think of the number of patients over the years who’ve come in to see me “too late.” Many came in for chiropractic treatment after back surgery, after neck fusion, after hip replacement, and after a regimen of pharmaceuticals that had caused unfortunate side effects. And, because their surgery had not only failed to relieve their pain, but had created more problems in its aftermath, many of them told me, “I only wish I’d come to see you sooner.”
Chiropractic treatment is a non-invasive, non-surgical, drug-free approach to pain relief and musculoskeletal corrections. If you are experiencing pain, your body is telling you that there’s a problem that needs to be addressed. A conservative treatment choice like chiropractic may not only be able to get you out of pain quickly, but can also help you to avoid more serious problems in the future. The wear and tear on your body from misalignments can, overtime, create painful conditions that can, eventually, make surgery the only option. Don’t let that happen to you. See a chiropractor in your area today!Weightlifting Injuries a “Girl Thing”?
Most injuries happen, experts say, not because kids are lifting too much, but because they’re supervised too little. They offer these tips for newbie lifters:
- Never lift alone. It’s best to have a coach or trainer nearby at all times.
- Always use a spotter.
- Be sure to start slowly and build up to heavier weights.
Want to Lose Weight? Get Some Sleep!
As a chiropractor, I’m very interested in the overall health of my patients. As part of a healthy lifestyle we discuss a nutritious diet, getting enough rest, drinking enough water, and getting regular chiropractic care, of course. And, since body weight can affect the stability and function of the musculoskeletal system, as well as impact its organic structures, I am always interested in new studies about weight issues. So, now, let me ask you this: What could be worse than feeling tired and groggy during the day after not getting enough sleep the night before? Well, craving calories, that’s what! A recent study found that normal-weight young men ate a “Big Mac’s-worth of extra calories” when they’d gotten four hours of sleep the night before compared to when they slept for eight hours.
Let’s face it, as a group, we Americans have been sleeping less and getting fatter over the past few decades. The researchers wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “Sleep restriction could be one of the environmental factors that contribute to the obesity epidemic.” No experimental studies to date have actually looked at what happens to a normal-weight person’s eating patterns when he or she sleeps less.
To read more about this study, go to reuters.com